Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart : Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna [Hardcover]

Betty De Shong Meador (Author), Judy Grahn (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0292752415 | ISBN-13: 978-0292752412 | Publication Date: February 2001 | Edition: 1st

The earliest known author of written literature was a woman named Enheduanna, who lived in ancient Mesopotamia around 2300 BCE. High Priestess to the moon god Nanna, Enheduanna came to venerate the goddess Inanna above all gods in the Sumerian pantheon. The hymns she wrote to Inanna constitute the earliest written portrayal of an ancient goddess. In their celebration of Enheduanna's relationship with Inanna, they also represent the first existing account of an individual's consciousness of her inner life. This book provides the complete texts of Enheduanna's hymns to Inanna, skillfully and beautifully rendered by Betty De Shong Meador, who also discusses how the poems reflect Enheduanna's own spiritual and psychological liberation from being an obedient daughter in the shadow of her ruler father. Meador frames the poems with background information on the religious and cultural systems of ancient Mesopotamia and the known facts of Enheduanna's life. With this information, she explores the role of Inanna as the archetypal feminine, the first goddess who encompasses both the celestial and the earthly and shows forth the full scope of women's potential. Betty De Shong Meador is a Jungian analyst in private practice, who also teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies and at New College, both in San Francisco, and at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"That these poems deal immediately with the very popular 'goddess literature' and with an individual woman in a most important historical situation should give this work widespread appeal." --John Maier, SUNY College at Brockport, cotranslator of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Review

That these poems deal immediately with the very popular 'goddess literature' and with an individual woman in a most important historical situation should give this work widespread appeal. (John Maier, SUNY College at Brockport, cotranslator of the Epic of Gilgamesh ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1st edition (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292752415
• ISBN-13: 978-0292752412
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,071,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive book about Enheduanna and Inanna, February 10, 2001

By 

Michelle W. Hart (Venice, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart : Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess (Paperback)

This is the book I have been waiting for since I first learned about Enheduanna, the first known writer of the ancient world and high priestess of the Sumerian moon god and was transfixed by her words: "But I am Enheduanna, pure and shining high priestess of the moon God!" I couldn't believe that a real priestess, wrote about herself in the first person, 4,000 years ago, as if she was talking directly to me. Ever since, I have had to trudge through dense, scholarly books and articles to learn any details I could about Enheduanna and now after 5 years this book comes along putting all the pieces, and I mean ALL the pieces together- and it far exceeds what I was hoping for. Meador has culled all the best information about Enheduanna and Inanna--from the overwhelming and hard-to-sift-through scholarly resources on Mesopotamia. She has hand-picked important quotes from women's studies, Jungian psychology, the ancient near east, and comparative anthropology and synthesized it all here, accessibly and VERY thought- provokingly! Meador has translated from the original Sumerian cuneiform three of Enheduanna's poems and presented them in a modern, delicious, poetic style for maximum accessiblity to today's audience. Through Meador's painstaking efforts and through her insightful and outstanding analysis Enheduanna emerges as a literary genius and surprisingly, as a theological radical! The latter was completely unexpected so I won't give away the details. This book is an incredible journey into a numinous, symbolic, mystical language, uncovering a new layer of the evolution of human consciousness, particularly from a female perspective. There is so much in this book which is so beautifully written- the poems alone are worth it. I predict it will become a best selling classic as were Enheduanna's poems centuries after her death. Enjoy and revel in this very real, powerful priestess' writings dating back 4,000 years! Praise be to Enheduanna and Betty de Shong Meador!

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good translating, forget most of the commentary, March 11, 2002

By 

ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart : Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess (Paperback)

This up-to-date rendition of Sumerian religious poetry and hymns can be reviewed in two areas. The first: that of the theories around the poems/hymns; the second: the actual translations. Five stars the latter, two stars the former.
The first part is given over to discussion of the Sumerian culture and the mythology of Inanna. The first chapter dupes as an intro and is autobiographical, which is nice, as it's good to see why an author has chosen to write any book. Chapter Two could be summed up by the statement that Inanna is "all encompassing", but the author chooses to spend a dozen pages saying it. To be honest you can safely ignore Chapter Two. Chapter Three is far better, giving a succinct history of pre-Sumerian cultures during the Ubaid period. Chapter Four is also very good as Meador gives a history of the archaeology of the Sumerian period. It continues through Chaprter 5 with an interpretation of Enheduanna's life. Several interpretative anomalies and assumptive theories leap out in chapters 5 to 7. For example, the single disk that was found stating: "Enheduanna..., daughter of Sargon" is interpreted as literal, even though, as the author acknowledges, this presents a dichotomy (as other Sumerian scholars also acknowledge) of incestuous rituals described in Chap6, pg 61. Given all these scholars and the author agree it presents a problem it might be prudent to theorize that the term `daughter' is ritualistic and not literal. But, by taking the literal interpretation, it has allowed the author to present a full princessly/priestessly life of Eduhanna with no primary source to back it up.
Chapter 7 begins to discuss the 42 hymns and 3 poems. Hymn 8 speaks of the `seven seas' which throws up all kinds of questions, given the relatively modern usage of the term. What seven seas were the Sumerians referring to? The author starts to provide assumptive criticism of the hymns and the statement that: "In these works she created a role for Inanna never before explicitly stated" is not teneble. That's akin to saying that Homer was solely responsible for creating the roles of Achilles, Hector and Agamemmnon in the Iliad just because his is the earliest record. Something so patently untrue any Hellenistic scholar would deride the statement. It is further erroneously backed up by the statement: "Enheduanna draws a complex picture of Inanna that had probably never been articulated before." `Probably'? Alarm bells began to go off on reading that, if the author isn't convinced of her own thesis. Another example is the hymn section on pg77 where the word `captive' is transliterated to mean she was exiled and there is subsequent psychoanalysis of her state of mind in this `exile'. Perhaps the word `captive' is symbolic. It is, after all, a liturgical hymn.
What is also frustrating, and Meador's amateur historian status perhaps explains it, is that (in this section) hardly any of it seems to be her own original thought. It's a constant procession of secondary author quoting, almost as though the author feels she needs professorial agreement for her points to be valid. Which is clearly not true, given the latter sections of the book. The book is good enough without a regurgitatory summation of other secondary sources.
The second part is given over the the poems and is so much better. Brief intros, the translation (my only desire would be for a parallel cuneiform alongside the english, as translatory license is obviously given; unless the author knew when and where Enheduanna was using slang which I doubt) then the commentary on the text. Not a sniff of secondary sources just free-flowing precise scholarship. Indeed the differences between what I term part I and part II are vast.
The first `poem', between An, Innana and Ebih, has Meador drawing parallels to Eden.There was a very interesting comment on there being a pre-Edenic myh with Adam having a wife before Eve, named Lillith which was new. The second, lauds Inanna's powers, the reverence and rituals due her, with commentary on the personas of Innana. The third, exalts Inanna after a claimed actual event.
To conclude, a tale of two parts. In the first the author tends to switch between literal and figurative interpretation to fit her theories and you end up asking more questions than receiving answers. In the second , the translations of the poems are extremely well done and the sense of devotion to Inanna shines through. The author leans towards a spiritual translation rather than an factual one, and therefore you need to read it with an awareness of `bias' to the imparted message, but as a current up-to-date version of religious Sumerian poetry this is excellent.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT POEMS!!!, March 28, 2003

By 

N. Jacobs (Fish Creek, Wi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart : Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess (Paperback)

As someone intensely interested in Inanna, as well as the ancient Sumerian gods and religeon, this book was exactly what I needed to better understand some of the most important concepts.
Three complete poems of Enheduanna are represented here, and just the first one, "Inanna and Mount Ebih," is well worth the price of this book alone. There are many other small poems, little titbits of the ancient Sumerian hymns, which are equally enlightening. The translations, as well as the original texts are beautifully done, reading easily as poetry. If you like goddesses and you like poetry, this is a good thing to check out!
I already own "Inanna: Queen of Heaven and of Earth," by Wolkstein, so I am well familiar to Inanna as a goddess of love and warmth. The texts contained in this book are the exact opposite; many show the violent side of Inanna. But this is exactly what is important, because Inanna is a goddess of duality, that symbolizes at many time's man's ancient connection with the spirit and his natural instincts. In ancient Mesopotamia, gods were often feared for their great powers, and harshness upon those that wronged them. Its great to have a new point of view, especially one that is as powerful as this. For the serious student, I'd reccomend getting both books, that way you can have a really clear picture of the glory of Inanna.
The author spends a lot of time giving information about the ancient Sumerian customs, which I find to be very useful. For example, the Sumerian marriage rite, which I had never known much about.
Now, I do have one complaint about this book. The author tends to include WAY too many references to the Bible, as well as a really strong feminist view point. While this is in fact interesting at times, its taken to the extreme in several places, such as at the end of "Inanna and Mount Ebih." I would say that for those of you that dig gender studies, you'll find it enlightening, but I would have preferred to see more information on the ancient Sumerian way of life. Oh well.
Highly reccommended.